The Pediatric Blues

Diarrhea cough and runny nose
Noisy breathing and fever
Doctor how old is my child?
Why is he so short?
Why is he still jaundiced?
Why does he vomit?
Why does he have a rash?
Why does he look blue all over?
Why isn't he eating? Playing?
Why is he still wetting his bed?

Diarrhea for how long already?
How many times a day?
Every day or every other day?
Any nausea or vomiting?
What color is the diarrhea?
Yellow, brown or green?
Watery? Bloody? or Pastey?
Any contact history or travel history?
Any stomach pain? Dizziness?
Does he wake up at night to use the toilet?
What's his past medical history?
What drugs are he taking? Any drug allergy?
Any family history of diarrhea?
Who's his primary caregiver? Doing well in school?
Able to afford medical bills?

How's his birth history?
Immunization history?
Developmental history?
...

Pediatrics!

Finally, the long-awaited posting of pediatrics!
I'd admit that the first week did take some time getting used to, given that I've just completed E Med. No longer are we compelled into setting plugs/doing ECGs/catherisation, and we are content simply watching the housemen and nurses do the work, while we study and practise our medical student craft of history taking and physical examination (which, for me, really meant spending lots of time reading files and seeing which are the cool patients to see each day)
I miss the immediacy of E Med.
But then again, after E Med medicine seems a lot more interesting, because I finally understand what's going on at the day to day running of the wards. At least in theory.
Interestingly, pediatrics has a component called "interactives" which seems like a bunch of questions that we do for our JC tutorials.
Finally, some structured teaching!